The encouragement we get from the people with whom we are working is most heartening. And time after time somebody (often somebody I don't even know) will say: "This is from my heart. We really appreciate what you-all are doing down here helping us." I have heard almost these exact words many times, which is indicative, I think, of the way many people (certainly not everybody) feel about the project.
Even if we were not to accomplish anything else, I believe that we are doing a great deal of good by just being here. For we are giving many of these people faith in white people. Many have never known a white person who has befriended them and worked with them in a non-paternalistic manner, particularly those who have lived in Mississipi all their lives. This is sometimes hard to believe, but such are the consequences of the Mississippi Way of Life. And I think that our being here will aid in the eventual reconciliation, however far off that may be.
I had dinner last night with a really nice family. There are four generations in the home; the great-grandmother has lived in the house almost all her life, and is still quite lively. The man of the house was an electrical technician and radar operator in World War II, but was unable to get a job using his skills after the war because Negroes just weren't hired for those types of jobs, so he is still a laboror in the shipyards. They talked quite a bit, often bitterly, about the Mississippi way of life, including lynchings that they had seen or heard about. And then people still say that our being here is a mistake, that things were fine in the good old days before the agitators started stirring up trouble.
Part of our work can also involve investigating incidents that occur. This afternoon I am going to try to get a statement from a man who went into a white lunch counter, and then after he left he was arrested for disturbing the peace and indecent exposure and taken to the police station and hit in the face twice by cops. And yesterday a 16-year-old girl was arrested for trespassing after she went into the white side of a laundromat, in pure violation of the Civil Rights Act: her mother was also threatened with having her restaurant closed down. So I went over yesterday and talked to the girl's mother; today she is going to talk with one of our lawyers. Although strictly speaking this is not our job, (that is, worrying about public accomodations) we can often provide assistance that the local people ofen don't even know exists.
The Illinois members of the Credentials Committee are:
Mrs. R. Ryan
1320 N. State Parkway
Chicago
H.G. Fields
1364 N. 38th St.
East St. Louis, Ill
They should be contacted immediately in Atlantic City.
The best analysis to date of SMCC in Mississippi is in the current New Republic. Read it, but be discreet about recommending it.
Freedom!
Ed